we heard words from john boehner. we'll see if it's followed by action. we're talking about we're ready to sit down and make a deal. we'll follow your lead, mr. president. we want to bring in mike allen down in "politico's" newsroom. good morning. >> good morning, guys. >> there have been a lot of grand claims and proclamations over the past 36 hours. the republican party's dead. they can't recover. they've lost latinos forever. texas is a swing state now. put it in a little perspective for us. how bad are things at this moment? >> well, republicans recognize that things are really bad, as we've heard from the conversation here. they think that it's in freefall, and there's so many different parts that all have problems. you've talked about the demographic problems, this problem with the donors who gave a billion dollars, the outside group structure is clearly broken. >> that didn't work well. >> no, and i'll tell that you donors are angry about it. and somebody told me yesterday, donors -- and joe, you'll appreciate this -- donors are scorekeepers. and f